Borduar Eri silk emerges from a deep relationship between the silkworm, forest ecosystems, and the Rabha, Khasi, and Garo communities of Loharghat forest region. Through Traditional Ecological Knowledge, breeders continue genetic exchange between wild and semi-domestic Eri populations, creating resilient silkworm stocks adapted to changing climates and forest conditions. This community-managed rearing system has sustained the highest genetic diversity recorded in any Eri population sampled to date. The host plants, forests, silkworms, and communities exist as one interconnected system, while the traditional rearing practices govern the forest-edge interface and the ecological processes that sustain fibre production.
The silk is reared in Baris (small homesteads) across the forest villages of the Kamrup-Khasi Forest landscape. The cocoons are degummed using plant-based alkaline solutions, hand-spun with a traditional Takuri (drop spindle), and naturally dyed using forest-gathered materials. The silk is then handwoven in our ateliers located within these forest villages.

The true significance of Borduar Eri lies in this living biocultural continuum, where ecological stewardship, genetic diversity, and cultural knowledge are sustained together across generations, making the silk inseparable from the landscape and communities that create it.